Maybe eBay Won't Have To Overpay For Skype By Quite As Much
from the he-shoots-he-misses dept
eBay's overpayment for Skype is set up into two stages -- the initial $2.6 billion, then another $1.5 billion that's based on Skype meeting certain performance metrics. Today's Om Malik's noting that while Skype's first-quarter revenues were about 40% higher than the previous quarter, its per-day revenue average needs to be 50 percent higher to hit its internal goal of $200 million for the year. Guess that means they better start pushing those ringtones harder, given the lack of a coherent strategy. So while eBay may end up not having to pay the full $4 billion, it wouldn't be for the best reason -- because Skype's not performing up to expectations. Update: The plot thickens a bit -- that 42% quarterly revenue growth figure eBay put in its earnings release is misleading. As Om pointed out back in January, the fourth-quarter figures only covered the 78 days of the quarter after eBay's buyout of Skype closed. So the first quarter, which had the full three months, should see a bump by virtue of being 13 percent longer. Using the daily revenue average is one way to get a fairer comparison of the two quarters. In the fourth quarter, they were $318,000 per day, and if you extend that out over 90 days, you end up with about $29 million. In the first quarter, the average was about $391,111 per day or $35.2 million. These figures show a much less impressive 23 percent revenue growth -- nearly half of what eBay states.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
a harder time
I use skype and its great, but when others already have yahoo for instance its gonna be harder to claim new market. 3 million users is impressive so far.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
face-off!
I have little to no ability to understand financial statements, but your two views seem to be at opposite ends of the spectrum. Right now I am leaning more towards believing his, but I wondered what you guys have to say about his views concerning eBay's possible folly.
And yes, we all know Blodgett's history, but I've found his articles on Slate.com and his blog to be pretty informative.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Om's Skype Analysis
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Om's Skype Analysis
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Om's Skype Analysis
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
this is silly
We have to quit letting business people decide what we should buy. Look how bad movies suck. Ditto for music. Video games are so saturated with remakes these days its all crap. Im not so sure they do know what they are doing....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Om's Math
[ link to this | view in chronology ]